We have been learning about Sharon McCully, who grew up in rural southwest Minnesota, graduated from Russell High School in 1957, trained as a registered nurse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and practiced nursing for six years before volunteering for an Air Force Nurse Corps commission in 1968. She served at Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts before promotion to captain and volunteering for flight nurse training. She volunteered for Vietnam service during her flight nurse training and the Air Force assigned her to the 903rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base. She deployed to Vietnam in May 1970.

Sharon described her unit’s mission.

“Our mission was to move injured and ill patients in fixed-wing aircraft from where they had been brought from forward areas to where our fixed-wing aircraft could land so we could pick them up. We were delivering them primarily to the coast; either to Danang, Saigon, or Cam Ranh Bay where they would overnight or until the next big flight would come in. Sometimes we would be picking up other patients at these stops. C-141s (large, four-jet engine aircraft) would come in and take these patients out of country to Camp Zama in Japan or back to San Francisco. There were other flights that would take patients to the Philippines.”

Sharon described the modifications required for their aircraft to handle medevac patients.

The planes had hooks on the ceiling and what they called stanchions that came down. They weren’t metal. They were flexible, web-like, and you’d put cots on each one. On the C-130s (four-engine, turbo-prop cargo aircraft with a rear loading ramp) we could stack them five high, if need be. The fifth one was pretty high up there. We didn’t like that one. But on most flights we were three or four high (with patients). The C-130s were our biggest aircraft; but we also did the C-123s and the C-7s (two-engine, turboprop aircraft with rear loading ramps). All of the planes could be refigured to haul anything. The C-7s were the smallest. We didn’t fly those too often.”

The 903rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron had flight and medevac crews and aircraft at both Tan Son Nhut Air Base, near Saigon, and Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, where Sharon was stationed. The squadron flew medevac missions seven days a week from both air bases, sometimes flying multiple missions a day. Sharon flew at least five days a week and explained how the unit assigned medevac crews.

“We had regular schedules and not only were there the officers (nurses), but there were the enlisted men. The C-130s had at least two nurses on the flight and at least two to three medical technicians, which were the fellas. That would be our crew. Our uniform was the typical, green, military uniform and the big boots. We nurses carried in one of our leg pockets a small carousel of medications so, if need be, we could dispense pain medication. The (med techs’) primary duty was helping to carry the litters that the patients were on and helping to secure them and our equipment. We had a neat bunch of enlisted people. Most of them had done medical evacuation before. These guys really worked. They also worked our radios and we were in contact with the places we were going to go, so we knew how many patients there were. There was a manifest of the personnel as well as some of the patients we anticipated we were picking up and what kind of injuries they had, so we would have the right supplies and the right configuration.”

Sharon recalled that flight days began early with the assigned medevac crews reporting to the unit area by 7 a.m. In-country medevac flights frequently lasted six or seven hours, longer if they encountered delays receiving, boarding, and off-boarding patients at their station stops.

“The enlisted staff would have been there during the night and received from the outlying stations who needed us to come and pick up patients. So, when we got to the unit in the morning we would know where we were going and about how many people we would be picking up and then whether we would be dropping off patients in Danang or Saigon.”

Sharon described the pre-flight preparations the medevac crew performed before a flight.

“Prior to each flight we checked storage boxes, in that ugly green the military has, that stored our medical equipment like dressings, blood pressure cuffs, and things that we would need in an emergency like IV fluids. We would resupply if we had used the supplies out of them. Our supplies were usually secured in the tail of the aircraft. The other thing that we would pick up before we’d take off in the morning were snacks they would make up for us like sandwiches and drinks like milk. These were primarily for our patients because many of them hadn’t eaten for some time.”

Once the medevac crew and the aircrew had each completed their preflight checks, the pilot obtained clearance to take off and taxied out to the runway. The medevac crew strapped themselves into their canvas seats for the first leg of what would likely be six or seven hours of take-offs, landings, on-boarding patients, and off-loading patients. They had some idea of the number and nature of the patients they would be receiving into their care, but had to be prepared for anything.

©2024 William D. Palmer

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